The UIC Telecom Panel of Experts met in Lisbon on 26-27 September 2011, at the kind invitation of Refer and Refer Telecom.
On the afternoon of 26 September, a visit was organised to Lisbon OCC – Operational Command Centre for Traffic Management. Mr Castanho Ribeiro, Refer Telecom’s Chairman and Refer’s member of the board, welcomed the UIC Panel of Telecom Experts.
Lisbon’s centralised dispatcher manages the railway traffic for 1350 km of track and 1650 trains per day.
Mr José Tomé, Refer’s Regional Operations Management Director, under whose responsibility Lisbon OCC is managed, declared that “in order to put in place such a critical centralised dispatcher, reliable telecommunications infrastructure is vital”.
On the second day, the Panel of Telecom Experts met and discussed together several important subjects (contribution to UIC CCS Glossary, UK – RSSB and Network Rail’s view on the future of telecommunications systems, ETSI – Technical Specifications for SIP Dispatcher Interface, Nokia Siemens Networks’ view on integrated telecommunications networks); the group discussed the “IP Introduction to Railways Guideline”, a major UIC deliverable that is set to be finalised in Q1 2012.
The document addresses IP challenges when implemented in railway networks and used for mission critical communications, providing guidelines on technologies, implementation scenarios, solutions for intrusion and encryption, all based on existing experience and analysis of the group members.
The main reasons for introducing IP in railways are to define a multi-service IP transmission network able to fulfil the exact technical requirements under sustainable investment costs of an increasing variety of existing and future applications (e.g. Signalling Systems; Rail Telephony; Power Traction SCADA, Infrastructure Monitoring SCADA; Passenger Information System; Video Surveillance; Track Intrusion Detection; Hot Box and Hot Wheel Detection; Dynamic Weighing; Weather Sensors, etc.), which description and requirements are also part of this guideline.
The document structure was finally agreed, and an initial view of the document first prepared by Refer Telecom experts, Mário Alves and André Khatchik, was presented and discussed. A list of actions and contributions for the guideline were agreed.
The next meeting is foreseen for 22 November 2011, when the first draft of the document will be discussed, and the timeline for document finalisation will be decided accordingly.
